I am a member and former officer in SEIU Local 1107 and your article in Saturday’s paper does not capture the entire situation in this local. Ms McAlevey being called a reformer is a real stretch, as she was the chief organizer of the Members United to Win campaign to remove dissident officers from the local’s executive board and replace them with her loyalists. This campaign is the subject of a U.S. Dept of Labor investigation which issued four preliminary findings of violations of federal labor law (Landrum-Griffin Act) by using union money, money from non members, and membership lists to conduct an officer election campaign. This is hardly reform in my eyes but rather corruption.

Unfortunately removing Ms McAlevey from the local does not fix the problem as those staff members whose salary is paid by the rank and file members and who were promoted as reward for their willingness to follow Ms McAlevey’s violations of federal labor law remain on staff at 1107. Ms McAlevey herself remains as a paid (by SEIU International, with members dues money) consultant for four more months. Additionally the officers who benefited from and participated in the tainted election remain on the executive board. Andy Stern, president of SEIU International may believe that this cosmetic fix will satisfy rank and file members but he is mistaken. The rank and file want all remnants of corruption purged from leadership roles in this local and will not be satisfied until that happens.

It's ironic that part of McAlevey's overall plan was to replace Hedderman with Hamel and now that has happened. McAlevey and Andy Stern supporter is being replaced by another Andy Stern supporter, so overall the local is under the finger of the international and if anything, more control has been lost by rank and file members which is Stern's agenda for all of SEIU.